letters from the road

monday morning. we pulled in at 4:30, just as the sun was doing its thing and the birds too. that was just this morning. i haven't slept since we started in virginia yesterday.
i remember we crossed through west viriginia -the sign said it would be wild and wonderful. well i'm just glad it's over. i'm back now and with stories to tell.

day three we played an afternoon slot in the Power of Prog music fest at the Kirkland Arts Center in upstate NY. how did we end up playing in a prog fest? that's a good question. and the answer has something to do with connections to the lebanese mafia in central new york. that's all i can say.

the next day we went down to the real new york, and played at piano's upstairs lounge. good show. a little frantic feeling, but we don't usually play clubs where we compete with excess ...i mean ambient... atmospheric sounds.
the other girls and i stayed in chelsea at the condo of a kind and generous korean painter friend of tim's. she wasn't around, but she let us crash there and i slept soundly that night in the most wonderful bed ever. wonsook kim had a lot of her pieces up which was wonderful because the natural light (and great view of the empire state and chrysler buildings) made for good viewing. i've seen her work in art books, but there's no comparison. this piece caught my eye. i can't find a color image of it anywhere on the web :-( this little pic doesn't do it justice. somethign in the rich colors and the simplicity of the real deal recalls the intimacy of home. not my own home, but the feeling of safe space (root-deep aroma of knowing).

here's what tim had to say about it in his meditations on seven of wonsook kim's paintings:

House shape enwrapped interior the heightened color of flesh
Out the window, past transparent curtains:
cradle moon in dark blue sky over rolling green hills
On the wall a crown of flowers, violin and bow
On the dresser a wedding picture, a book
A bed's sloping pink cover
A hint of a bare back

http://www.timlowly.com/a/wonsookkim.html

art books capture art like listening to live bootlegs is to a real concert. that's one of the best and most transformational things that happened to me on this tour: visual art in intimate spaces. it's been a long time since i've had that experience. one of these days i'll tell how andrew wyeth changed my life. but until then, skip the museum: go experience art in someone's home

Selamat Jalan - peace on your way